From Yoga to Happiness

by Lisa Pratt, RYT-200 Yoga is the perfect opportunity to practice tuning-in to yourself and find the answer to, “Who am I?” Yoga presents you with the opportunity to practice asking, “How is my body set up? Do I feel in alignment while in Tadasana when my toes are together or shoulder width apart?” “How does my body, mind and spirit feel while in forward fold?” “How does the breath help me to tune-in to me and open me up to the world?” We hear the words, “Just be HAPPY” a lot. We are constantly shown pictures through the media of who we should be, and what we should look like in order to finally find acceptance and happiness. Even when we try everything they suggest, we still don’t find happiness. So, how do we become happy and fulfilled in our lives? It seems most of us are on the same journey of finding “IT” – the final piece – and believing “IT” will finally bring us happiness and fulfillment. Is it possible the key to fulfillment and happiness is within you already… if only we will slow down enough to tune-in to it? I venture to guess that most of us want to be happy and fulfilled in our lives. Obtaining happiness and self-fulfillment requires a journey inside ourselves while exploring the world around us. It’s defining the question, “Who am I?” I believe it’s easiest to obtain happiness and self-fulfillment when we get to know ourselves and first define what those words look like to each of us uniquely. Each and every one of us is uniquely the same and this means that every word in our vocabulary can be defined differently by each of us. When we define the words “happiness” and “fulfillment,” and we know what they mean to us specifically, we can then go out into the world and live our passionate and authentic life, thus, creating our fulfilled life and self. It’s common for us to not even know what those words mean or look like to ourselves, and defining those words can be a journey all in itself. To discover those answers, we must take a journey inside of ourselves (tune-in) and pay attention to how we feel. We must listen to our body, mind, emotions and inner guiding voice. In other words, we get to know ourselves. On this journey, we are tuning-in to our own self while going out into the world with a sense of exploration and observation with awareness. What fires us up and fuels us? What are we drawn to? What repels us? What makes us angry, sad or giddy? Just pay attention. When we are living our fulfilled life, it can naturally inspire those around us and transcend to the entire world. There is no longer a need to have things or other people in order to fulfill us - we are fulfilled from the inside-out. We can be truly appreciative of our own self and the people and things in our lives - no longer needing them in order to bring us happiness or fulfillment – we can just enjoy them. We now can look within our own self and ask the questions, “What weight feels like ME?” “What color do I want my hair to be?” “How do I want to live my life?” Enjoy your journey of answering the question, “Who am I?” Enjoy the experience of falling in love with YOU!